Didi Contractor
Didi Contractor | |
---|---|
Born | Delia Kinzinger October 11, 1929 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
Died | Sidhbari, India | July 5, 2021 (aged 91)
Education | University of Colorado Boulder & self-taught Architect and natural builder |
Occupation | Natural builder |
Known for | Sustainable building in India |
Spouse | Narayan Contractor |
Children | Maya Narayan, Devendra Contractor, late Rahoul Contractor, Kirin Narayan |
Parent | Edmund & Alice Fish Kinzinger |
Delia Narayan "Didi" Contractor (née Kinzinger; 1929 – July 5, 2021) was an American artist and builder. Self-taught architect, she is known for her work on the vernacular traditions in India,[1][2][3][4][5] using adobe, bamboo and stone for materials. She was a recipient of the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India's highest civilian award for recognising the achievements and contributions of women.[6]
Life
Born Delia Kinzinger
She grew up in New Mexico and Texas, and took a year off from school to work in theatre,[5] She was first trained in art by her father and Hans Hofmann in New York,[2] and then studied art at the University of Colorado Boulder,[3] where she met her husband, Narayan Contractor. They moved to Nashik in the 1950s, and to Mumbai in the 1960s, raising four children.[3][7] After separating from her husband she moved to Andretta, an artists’ village established by Norah Richards in the Kangra Valley of Himachal Pradesh in the 1970s.[3]
Contractor's eldest daughter, Maya Narayan is a retired clinical psychologist. Over the years she has cared a lot for her mother. Contractor's youngest daughter is author and academic Kirin Narayan. Narayan has written about the Contractor household in Mumbai, in a beachside compound in Juhu which Contractor ran as a combination youth hostel and literary salon, in her memoir My Family and Other Saints.[10] Her son Devendra Contractor trained as an architect and practices in Santa Fe, New Mexico.[11] The children studied in the U.S.[12]
Contractor died at home in Sidhbari on July 5, 2021, at age 91.[13]
Buildings
Contractor was self-taught in architecture and was inspired as a child by a talk by
Recognition
Contractor was the subject of two feature films, Earth Crusader (2016),[4] and Didi Contractor: Marrying the Earth to the Building (2017).[2] She was the 2017 winner of the Women Artists, Architects and Designers (WADe) Asia Life Time Achievement Award.[4]
In 2019 the president of India gave her the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India's highest civilian award for recognising the achievements and contributions of women.[6][14]
References
- ^ a b Rao, Parikshit (September 13, 2017), "Meet the octogenarian architect who speaks the language of mud and clay", Architectural Digest
- ^ a b c d e Giaracuni, Steffi (2017), Didi Contractor: Marrying the Earth to the Building
- ^ a b c d e "Didi Contractor: A Self-Taught Architect Who Builds In Mud, Bamboo & Stone", World Architecture, May 11, 2018
- ^ a b c Farida, Syeda (March 22, 2018), "This Self-Taught Octogenarian Has Been Creating Sustainable Homes for 30 Years!", The Better India
- ^ a b Varghese, Shiny (January 14, 2018), "Unto the Earth: Didi Contractor's oeuvre is a story of rare beauty", The Indian Express
- ^ a b "Didi Contractor Receives India's Highest Civilian Honor for Women", Earthville, March 21, 2019
- ^ a b "Dokumentarfilm / "Earth Crusader" – vom Bauen mit Lehm", bba (in German), July 10, 2017, archived from the original on July 9, 2021, retrieved July 7, 2021
- ^ "Edmund Daniel Kinzinger Paintings | Vintage Texas Paintings", Charles Morin's Vintage Texas Gallery
- ^ Edmund Daniel Kinzinger (1888–1963) / Paris, Seinebrücke und Häuser, 1913 (in German), Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 2016
- ^ Patel, Bhaichand (November 10, 2008), "An Old Haunt: A tale of turbulent adolescence and life in a bicultural household, we visit '60s Bombay and a mystic's haven", Outlook
- ^ administrator (August 5, 2020). "Architecture for the Senses". Trend Magazine. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
- ^ Zimmerman, Nancy (August 5, 2020), "Architecture for the Senses", Trend
- ^ Varghese, Shiny (July 6, 2021), "Didi Contractor, champion of low-waste buildings, is no more", The Indian Express
- ^ Pandit, Ambika (March 8, 2019), "From masons, barbers to creators of forests and sustainable homes, nari shakti takes charge", Times of India
External links
- Didi Contractor at IMDb
- Silverstone, Marilyn (1960), East-West wedding, Magnum Photography. Silverstone's photo-essay on Didi Contractor, "East-West wife", was published in Coronet magazine, November 1960.
- Narayan, Kirin: My Family & Other Saints (excerpts) press.uchicago.edu
- Singh, Joginder: Didi Contractor / Ideas and Concerns (interview) immaterialonline.com